Many people feel that spiritual and nondual authors and teachers should not talk partisan politics, and I always have mixed feelings about doing so here on Facebook. I think it’s important to understand that we are all products of our nature and nurture and our life experiences, and to have the bigger view, so beautifully expressed by the old Chinese farmer story—to know that the light and dark go together inseparably, and that none of us really knows what’s best for the universe or what “should” happen next. But I also don’t believe in the (limited and dualistic) version of nonduality or spirituality that dismisses everyday life as “just a dream” that we should ignore.
We don’t know how far Donald might or might not go if he is re-elected, but the warning signs of rising fascism and a growing, armed movement of white supremacists marching openly in the streets, encouraged and egged on by the president, is quite evident. Americans like to think that what happened in Nazi Germany can’t happen here, but that’s exactly what they thought in Germany. At age 72, I’ve lived through some terrible presidents and some major conflicts and upheavals in American society, but I’ve never been as concerned as I am now.
My friend and teacher Toni Packer, who grew up half-Jewish in Nazi Germany during Hitler’s rise to power, and who lived through the war there, was deeply concerned when Rush Limbaugh—the man Trump honored with the Medal of Freedom—began doing his talk radio back in the late 80s and early 90s. Toni said that Limbaugh’s rhetoric reminded her of Hitler’s. She didn’t live to see Trump’s rise to power, but I know for sure that if she had, she would be deeply concerned. And I believe she would speak out.
Noam Chomsky has called the November election in the US the most important election in human history, and I agree. It's not just our fragile, would-be democracy here in the US that is at stake here, or the various groups that Trump is hurting—it’s the whole world and indeed all living beings. Human history is full of tyrants, authoritarian regimes, genocides, and wars that have come and gone. What's different this time is that we have catastrophic climate change and nuclear weapons in the mix. As Chomsky put it, "Four more years of Trump's climate and nuclear policies might simply doom the human species. We don’t have a lot of time to deal with the environmental crisis."
I’m a long-time progressive who spent a number of years in the radical anti-imperialist left. I understand that Trump is not an anomaly, that he’s a symptom of systemic problems that far pre-date his presidency. I also understand that Biden is far from perfect, that the Democratic Party is far from perfect, that both major parties represent a corrupt system of corporate capitalism, that what we have in the US is in many ways a far cry from true democracy, that the whole system is far from perfect. And like many of you, I had hoped for a more progressive candidate than Biden. Trust me, I get all that. I voted for Nader in 2000—I do understand the reasoning behind such a decision. But I now think it was a bad decision, and I think that in this election, it could be catastrophic.
Biden is clearly the only viable (i.e. electable) alternative to Trump at this time. Elections alone won’t solve everything, and Biden certainly won’t solve everything, and I’m sure he’ll do some things I don’t like if he’s elected, as well as some things I do like. But I know he won’t be as bad as Trump and the present-day Republican Party. Biden-Harris will be accountable, at least to some degree, to the Democratic base and to progressive values, which I think they genuinely share as human beings, unlike Trump-Pence, who will continue to be accountable in large measure to fundamentalist Christians, right-wing extremists, and white supremacists.
So I want to urge those progressive voters who don’t plan to vote for Biden because they think there is no real difference between Biden and Trump to re-think this. I want them to consider carefully the very real differences that DO exist between Biden and Trump, and to consider the power and importance of who sits on the Supreme Court, or who gets those lifetime appointments to the federal benches, and the very real differences that this alone will make for decades to come in how we are able to approach climate change, healthcare, corporate power, and the myriad issues of social and economic justice, including women's reproductive choices, LGBTQI civil rights, criminal justice and immigration reform, and moving towards a world free of racism and sexism. There IS a significant difference between Biden and Trump, and it matters! Please don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
And if you think that not voting for Biden will send a message to the Democratic Party, or help to end the two-party monopoly, I would suggest that this is a fantasy. Not voting at all, or not voting for Biden (the only electable alternative) accomplishes nothing, as far as I can see, other than lending tacit support to Trump’s re-election. Please don’t do that.
I know I probably have a few Trump supporters reading this post as well, so let me say a few words to you. I understand that some small business owners are moved to vote for Trump because he has “cut red tape” (otherwise known as environmental, health and safety protections, and yes, sometimes bureaucratic over-reaches because no laws and regulations are ever perfect). Or maybe they voted for him because they like his unvarnished, uncensored, off-the-cuff style and his refusal to play by the rules. Back in 2016, I think some less-informed voters were unaware of Trump’s vast inherited fortune and his numerous bankruptcies and scams, and they really believed that he was a great businessman who could “make great deals” for the American people. Many people just wanted a change, and they didn’t like Hillary, so they voted for Trump. Some were reacting against what they experienced as the over-zealous cancel and woke cultures. And maybe today, some people see all the rioting and looting, and hear people on the left calling for the abolishment of the police, or they feel the hypocrisy of having mass BLM protests during a pandemic while condemning Trump for his unmasked rallies, and so they support Trump.
Sometimes, it seems to me, when we try to correct a deep-seated systemic problem like racism or sexism that has been going on for a very long time, in our zeal to fix it, we sometimes (understandably) over-react and over-correct. I don’t mean by this that the problem is solved, but simply that the things we do to bring that about are sometimes not really helpful. Then that over-correction (understandably, from a different perspective) provokes a counter-reaction back in the other direction. And, of course, no two of us will agree on exactly where the line is between positive correction and over-correction, or between genuinely helpful correction and off-the-mark absurdity. And thus we have battles over such things as the cancel culture, woke culture, political correctness, affirmative action, identity politics, and so on. And to my sensibilities, there is truth on both sides of these battles. And by that, I don’t mean there is truth in racism, white supremacy or sexism; I mean that sometimes the cancel and woke cultures and the various progressive movements on the left do and say things that feel absurd or wrong even to me, as much to the left as I am. And I suspect that what many people on the right see as the excesses on the left, have played into Trump’s hand and may well play a huge role in re-electing him.
But for those of you who lean Republican, let me assure you that Joe Biden is no leftist radical as Trump claims. Joe doesn’t want rioting any more than you do, nor is he going to abolish the police (although hopefully he will support significant reforms and meaningful changes). Having a president like Trump who is openly and unapologetically sexist and racist won’t solve the perceived excesses on the left, or the growing polarization in his country, it will only exacerbate them.
I get that if you’re a Republican, it’s tempting to hold your nose and vote for the Republican candidate, even if you don’t like the guy’s behavior. But if you’re a decent human being, it seems to me you need to take a good hard look at what you’re supporting. Donald Trump is a thug, a narcissist, arguably a sociopath, a demagogue, a conman, a racist, a sexist, a pathological liar, an incompetent businessman who was propped up by his father, a corrupt and power-hungry man who will do anything it takes to win. He clearly has no feeling for nature, for the earth, for animals or children or human beings, or for democratic values. He has no sense of humor, no humility, no basic human decency. He stirs up violence, incites hate, and tries to divide instead of unite. He is unbelievably childish and thin-skinned, tweeting away uncontrollably and addictively in ways no one in his position ever should, hurling vicious insults, bald-faced lies, and re-tweeting dangerous and absurd conspiracy theories. This is the President of the United States! He seems to me like a man without a conscience, a very dangerous man.
I believe it is a grave danger to humanity and to life on earth to have someone this self-aggrandizing and unhinged at the helm of one of the world’s biggest and most powerful countries, with access to its military might and its nuclear codes.
I hope my progressive readers, those who are still thinking they might not bother to vote, or thinking they might write in Bernie, or vote for the Green Party, will think more deeply about the potential consequences of this. And any Republicans out there with a shred of decency MUST, in my opinion, refuse to support Trump. Voting for him cannot be justified, except through belief in absurd conspiracy theories and wildly inaccurate misinformation, or total self-interest and blinkered-thinking if his policies happen to benefit you personally. History will not judge those who support this man kindly.
I hope with all my heart that those of you in the US who are reading this will join me in voting for Biden-Harris, as imperfect as they may be. There will be plenty of time for criticism of them, and for pushing them as much as we can in a more progressive direction, after they are elected, but this is the time to make sure they get elected. This is the time to take a stand against rising fascism, a growing white supremacist movement, militarized and racist policing, sexism, the Republican agenda to disempower women, and the environmental devastation that threatens our very survival. This is the time to do everything we can to make sure that Trump doesn’t stay in office for another 4 years (or beyond).
I know these are strong words, not the usual stuff of nonduality. But my version of nonduality includes the everyday world. It includes our humanity. It includes how we organize our societies and live together in groups, which is really what politics is all about. Nonduality and spirituality includes EVERYTHING. It includes Joan taking a stand against the rising tide of fascism in 2020.
I do not want to argue or debate here in the comments. I’m using my pages to share my perspective, but I do not want my pages used to promote Trump or positions that I feel will tacitly help him win—any such comments will be deleted. I reserve the right to curate my own FB pages as I see fit. I ask you to please respect my pages and not post comments of this nature. If you wish to promote Trump either directly, or indirectly by tearing down the only electable alternative on the ballot, then please use your own pages for this, not mine.
Finally, as my mother taught me long ago, que sera sera, what will be, will be. Or, in other words, Thy will be done. That’s an important perspective to keep in mind. Ultimately, none of us knows what’s best for the universe, but this movement of the universe called Joan has been moved to write this post for whatever reason.
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